Thursday, February 11, 2010

Musical News Round-Up To Start The Day

An early morning earthquake rattled northern Illinois on Wednesday, shaking an area about 50 miles west-northwest of downtown Chicago, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was originally reported as having a magnitude of 4.3, but the USGS later downgraded it to magnitude 3.8. It hit just before 4 a.m. CT (5 a.m. ET), with an epicenter about 3 miles underground. The USGS pinpointed the quake between the towns of Virgil and Sycamore, Illinois.

Millions of people felt the temblor, with reports coming in to the USGS from Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as Illinois. Members of the public sent more than 10,000 reports of the earthquake to the USGS within the first few hours after it struck.

I lived for 12 years in Southern California. I felt nothing. It was a very minor quake in my humble opinion. But here is some music to help one through the next quake:

CAROLE KING (Live) - I Feel The Earth Move

2. Charles Wilson, former Congressman from Texas, died yesterday at the age of 76.

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX), a swashbuckling congressman immortalized in the book and movie "Charlie Wilson's War," died Wednesday in Lufkin, Texas. He was 76.

Known mostly for partying philandering while in Congress, Wilson secured the nickname "Goodtime Charlie." But the book and film about his efforts to covertly arm the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s ingrained Wilson's name in the American consciousness.

Tom Hanks played Wilson in the 2007 film, directed by Mike Nichols.

Wilson also had a heart transplant that same year.

Yana Ogletree, the director of media relations at the Memorial Health System of East Texas, says Wilson was at a meeting Wednesday morning in Lufkin with his friend Buddy Temple. The former congressman started to have trouble breathing. Temple then drove Wilson to the hospital and flagged down an ambulance while en route. The ambulance then drove Wilson to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 12:16 p.m. CT.

3. Phil Harris, captain of the fishing boat Cornelia Marie, star on the reality show, Deadliest Catch, died yesterday of a stroke. He was 53.

Phil Harris, the fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were captured on the television show "Deadliest Catch", has died, the Discovery Channel said Tuesday night. He was 53.

Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the fishing vessel he captained, Cornelia Marie, was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. The fisherman was flown to Anchorage for surgery.

The reality show, which has filmed five seasons, has been one of the Discovery Channel's most popular and depicts the crab fishing industry in the dangerous waters off Alaska.